Summary Report: Costa Rica
Welcome!
You have reached the CCN Inventory Tool Detailed Insights Report.
Congratulations! This geography has available data.
Potential data availability within the Inventory Tool ranges from Tier I, Tier II, or Tier III Carbon stock estimates.
Tier I: Global sediment carbon stock estimates.
Tier II: Country- or territory-level sediment carbon stock estimates.
Tier III: Modeled country- or territory-level sediment carbon stock estimates.
This document includes country-specific insights and more detailed analysis, including carbon stocks, emissions factors, and ecosystem wetland area for mangrove, marsh, and seagrass habitats. This report details information for the selected geography, Costa Rica.
Explore the rest of the dashboard for more exciting visualizations, map features and data.
If you have any questions or data you would like to add to the Coastal Carbon Network, please reach out to us at CoastalCarbon@si.edu.
This map represents the area of Costa Rica and the locations of both soil cores and vegetation samples included in the Coastal Carbon Atlas.
Total Carbon Stock Estimates
Total Carbon stock estimates were calculated for each geography in total, and for mangrove, tidal marsh, and seagrass habitats, when available.
We estimate that Costa Rica contains a mean estimate of 10060000 megagrams per hectare sediment carbon stock.
We estimate that Costa Rica contains between 11760000 to 8349000 megagrams per hectare sediment carbon to a depth of 1 m, with a mean estimate of 10060000 megagrams per hectare.
Total Territory-Level Stocks
| Country | Territory | Total Stocks | Upper CI | Lower CI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Costa Rica | Costa Rica | 10060000 | 8349000 | 11760000 |
Total Mangrove Stocks
| Country | Territory | Habitat | Total Stock | Lower CI | Upper CI | Standard Error |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Costa Rica | Costa Rica | Mangrove | 9653000 | 8054000 | 11250000 | 832600 |
This total estimate includes total mangrove soil carbon stocks, with a mean estimate of 9653000 megagrams per hectare soil carbon to a depth of 1 meter.
Total Marsh Stocks
| Country | Territory | Habitat | Total Stock | Lower CI | Upper CI | Standard Error |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Costa Rica | Costa Rica | Marsh | 403500 | 294600 | 512400 | 56740 |
This total estimate also includes total tidal marsh carbon stocks, with a mean estimate of 403500 megagrams per hectare soil carbon to a depth of 1 meter.
Total Seagrass Stocks
| Territory | Habitat | Total Stock |
|---|---|---|
| Costa Rica | Seagrass | 1728 |
This estimate also includes seagrass soil carbon stocks for Costa Rica which we estimate to have a mean of 1728 megagrams per hectare sediment carbon stock.
Wetland Areas and Activities
We estimate mangrove area in Costa Rica to be 34060 to 44970 hectares, with a mean estimate of 38790 hectares according to Global Mangrove Watch, Bunting et al. (2018).
We estimate tidal marsh area in Costa Rica to be 958.5 to 1789 hectares, with a mean estimate of 1582 according to Worthington et al. (2024).
We estimate seagrass area to be Costa Rica to be a mean of 16 hectares, according to McKenzie et al. (2020), which aggregates global seagrass data from a number of sources.
Calculated Stocks and Emissions Factors
This section of the report details whether data is available to estimate Tier I, Tier II, or Tier III value estimates for tidal marsh, mangrove, and seagrass ecosystems in Costa Rica.
If data for the selected country is available in the Coastal Carbon Atlas, we have applied a Tier II emission factor based on a simple average of country specific data queried from the Atlas.
Within the Coastal Carbon Atlas, data from the selected geography, Costa Rica, includes soil samples and vegetation samples.
Soil core data from Costa Rica included in the Coastal Carbon Atlas consists of 179 soil profiles from 59 sites. This data comes from 2 distinct habitat type(s). At present, there are 84 vegetation samples.
In the case that there is not yet any country specific information in the Coastal Carbon Atlas, we instead applied IPCC Tier I estimate, which are estimated global values. IPCC Global estimates for mangrove, marsh, and seagrass ecosystems are listed below.
The table titled “Availiability of Territory-Level Data” in this section also details whether the calculated Tier II, or territory-level sediment carbon stock value is significantly different from the estimated global values. This is observed in the “Reporting Insight” column, and can be helpful in observing when a habitat has a higher or lower estimated sediment carbon stock value than the IPCC Global estimates.
| Habitat | Mean | Lower_CI | Upper_CI |
|---|---|---|---|
| mangrove | 386 | 351 | 424 |
| marsh | 255 | 254 | 297 |
| seagrass | 108 | 84 | 139 |
Data Availiability by Tier - Reporting Insight
| Country | Territory | Habitat | Tier | Reporting Insight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Costa Rica | Costa Rica | mangrove | Territory-Level | Territory-level average is significantly less than global value |
| Costa Rica | Costa Rica | marsh | Global | No Tier II data available at this time |
| Costa Rica | Costa Rica | seagrass | Global | No Tier II data available at this time |
Tier I Carbon Stocks - Global Estimates
This section includes estimated global sediment carbon stocks included for Costa Rica. In the case that any habitats; mangrove, tidal marsh, or seagrass do not have availiable territory-level estimates, please refer to Table 2: IPCC Tier I Value Estimates for applicable global values.
Tier II: Territory Level Carbon Stocks
This table includes country or territory level sediment carbon stock estimates for Costa Rica. Estimates in this table were derived from available soil core data queried from the Coastal Carbon Atlas.
A selected country may have available territory-level values for one or multiple habitats, this is dependent on core data accessible through the Coastal Carbon Atlas. If a territory has habitat area, but that respective habitat type does not have an associated territory-level stock estimate, there is insufficient core data in the Coastal Carbon Atlas to estimate sediment carbon stock. At the time of analysis, referencing Version 1.5.0 of the Coastal Carbon Atlas and Data Library, Costa Rica is represented by a total of 179 cores across 2 distinct habitat(s).
| Country | Territory | Habitat | Mean Stock (MgHa) | Lower CI | Upper CI | Standard Error |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Costa Rica | Costa Rica | mangrove | 249 | 225 | 272 | 11.9 |
Tier III Carbon Stocks
Tier III: modeled sediment carbon stocks were estimated, when available, using remote sensing data from Maxwell et al 2021 and Sanderman et al 2018. The table below details whether estimated values are available for any habitat in Costa Rica, and details any overlap with associated global or territory-level estimates.
If there are no modeled estimates associated with the selected geography and specific habitat of interest, please refer to above tables of global and territory-level sediment carbon stocks.
| Country | Territory | Habitat | Mean Stock (MgHa) | Lower CI | Upper CI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Costa Rica | Costa Rica | mangrove | 336 | 265 | 407 |
In mangrove habitats, modeled estimated stock MgHa values are, greater than territory-level values estimated from Coastal Carbon Atlas Data. In this case, the modeled Remote-sensing esimate overlaps country-specific average. Additionally, estimated modeled stock values derived from remote sensing are less than estimates global IPCC values. In this case, the modeled Remote-sensing esimate overlaps Tier I global estimates.
Visualizations
1. Data Metrics
2. Emissions Factors
3. Activity Data
